Colloquium: Refuge, Heba Gowayed, Associate Professor of Sociology, CUNY Hunter College & Graduate Center

Drawing on a global and comparative ethnography, this talk explores how Syrian men and women seeking refuge in a moment of unprecedented global displacement are received by countries of resettlement and asylum- the U.S., Canada, and Germany. It shows that human capital, typically examined as the skills immigrants bring with them that shape their potential, is actually created, transformed, or destroyed by receiving states’ incorporation policies. Since these policies derive from historically informed and unequal approaches to social welfare, refugees’ experiences raise a mirror to how states (re)produce inequality.

Sponsored by the UW-Madison Department of Anthropology, Center for German and European Studies, IRIS NRC, GNS+, UW-Madison Human Rights Program, and the UW-Madison Department of Sociology.